


Babysitting

by Mogadorian_Wolf



Series: Penthouse Fun [3]
Category: The Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Prank Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 01:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5271491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mogadorian_Wolf/pseuds/Mogadorian_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John's babysitting Ella while Marina takes Nine shopping. He never should've agreed to that</p>
            </blockquote>





	Babysitting

I stared at the youngest Garde sitting across from me, a plate of Marina’s cookies sitting between us. Nine managed to do just fine babysitting her, and he was known for his brash, un-child-friendly nature. It couldn’t be that hard to keep her happy.

“Figured we could do something today, get out of the house. How’s the zoo sound? Or… I’m sure there are other things to do if you don’t want to go to the zoo?” I offered, unsure of myself. How did Nine do this?  
Ella just stared at me, taking a slow bite of the cookie in her hand. I tried another tactic, “Sarah thought you might like to do another make-over some time. The glitter was a very nice touch with the last one, and I’m sure we could get you a girly movie to watch too.”

Okay, so that was more like pushing it off on Sarah, but it was something! And in all reality, Sarah had pretty much violently swore off girls’ night after how the last one ended. They were still trying to get glitter out of their clothes and carpet. Still Ella had seemed to have a lot of fun, even when Nine threatened to dye her skin blue if she dumped anymore glitter on him or tried to put make up on him. His hair had already been sacrificed for the girls’ night.

Ella continued staring blankly at me. I sighed. How did Nine get such reactions out of the girl? No matter how embarrassing it may be, I had to corner Nine after this and find out how he did it. There was other options for now, “We could watch a movie, or... I don’t know, Ella. What do you want to do?”

She looked up thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged, “Nine like teaching me kick ass moves, but I don’t think that’s you, so….” She methodically took a cookie from the plate and took a bite, “What are we going to learn today?”

“How to fly,” Five answered walking into the kitchen and grabbing a cookie, followed by Eight. With Nine gone shopping, being the apartment jerk apparently fell to Five. Those two had slowly warmed up to each other, forming the weirdest relationship that included almost daily fighting, insults and the random oddly sweet moments.

Eight shook his head with a laugh, before flopping down on the couch. Five quickly followed the other Garde, like he might disappear if left unattended for too long, “Hey now, I promised Marina I’d look out for you while you’re away. Apparently she thinks you have a habit of getting into danger just so she has to heal you, or that we don’t take care of you well enough. Nine thinks you just need more training. I promised him as well.”

“He’s the reason I passed out last time! And I don’t need constant looking after,” Eight protested, and I winced, remembering how exhausted he’d been when he’d appeared in my room earlier in the week. I didn’t even know what those two had been up to that had pushed Eight so far into exhaustion.

I shook my head at the odd duo and looked at Ella who seemed rather interested in the ongoing of the other two older Garde. She was probably wondering if that was how a relationship was supposed to work. Hers and Marina’s was so new and young that both girls seemed to be constantly looking for how it should work. I wondered if she was offended by Five’s remark at all, not that she wouldn’t necessarily not be able to fly when she got older, but… she was still so young.

“Don’t listen to him. He-“ I started off to assure the youngest Garde who barely seemed to really notice my appearance. Sarah and I probably shouldn’t have kids, if this was how they would react to me. I apparently wasn’t any good with them, either, if the most belligerent of us was better at handling her than me. 

I was quickly cut off by Sam’s yelp as he ran into the room, quickly followed by a pissed of pink Six and a soaking wet Sarah with suds on her head and shoulders. Was that glitter in Six’s hair? I thought we’d cleansed the shampoo, and the conditioner, and the body wash, and the sheets- okay maybe we were still working on those.

“Oh God, not again. No more glitter, please,” I silently groaned, hitting my head on the counter top. And Nine wasn’t even here today. Eight laughed from the couch; Five probably had his head in Eight’s lap. He had gotten very touchy and clingy once he’d gotten firmly settled in. The boys and Marina seemed to be his favorite to cling to, though he did have his following-Nine’s-footsteps-in-being-an-older-brother-to-Ella moments and the very infrequent moments of going to Sarah for advice. I only felt a little guilty for immediately taking care of that one. Sarah apparently felt guiltier about being harsh with the new Garde because she’d only gently confronted Five the one time she found him clinging to me.

What happened?” I asked flatly, looking up. Sarah shot me a sympathetic look as Adam raced into the room to defend his boyfriend. Sam hid behind me with a whimper, Adam apparently being too far away to protect him from Six’s wrath, “Nine left a couple of those prank traps in the lecture hall, and I might have accidentally triggered it on the girls. Total accident! I swear!”

Six actually threw something at him, and Adam was right there between them, looking furious. Dust was at his heels in his favorite wolf form, growling at Six. This was going to get messy. Six just stepped right past them, putting her hands on the counter and leaning toward Sam, accusing, “You laughed!”

Sam made a move to run toward his boyfriend, and Six copied him like she was prepared to chase him, “You were with Nine last night.”

Adam stepped between them, looking scarily like a his cold-hearted father when he tried to kill us, “He was with me last night, reading. We only watched a movie with Sarah and the other boys. There was no great plot against you.”

I wanted a freeze button. I also really wanted to put Nine in time out when he came back. Why did half of my problems revolve around the other Garde? It gave me a headache. Compared to them, the war seemed like no big deal… until I realized we had to actually work together to stand a chance. Not even my optimism could reconcile with that.

Eight whispered something to Five, making him laugh before offering it up, “Nine wasn’t the only one involved in that prank. Eight, here, was also a crucial element in getting it set up.”

“Hey!” Eight slapped a hand over Five’s mouth, “Don’t say that. Only Nine’s to blame for these causalities. It was his idea. And Five happily helped him last night.”

“Boys’ night,” Five commented, having apparently pulled Eight’s hand off his mouth. “Before the movie night. It was kind of our version of a fun date night.”

“Let’s start a prank war!” Ella declared leaping up, looking more excited than she had all day. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I’d agreed to look after the young Garde for Nine, and it definitely wasn’t what I had in mind when I’d been plotting out possible fun activities to entertain her. I definitely didn’t like the enthusiastic response that idea received, either.

Six gave Sam a wicked smile, “You know I think I’ll let you live for this. Sarah, I’ve got a few pranks to pull. Those boys are going to regret the day they thought they could prank us and get away with it.”

“Hey! I haven’t pulled a prank on any of you,” I weakly protested, only to go unheard. 

Adam glared right back at Six, “It wasn’t us.”

Sam didn’t seem to be on the same page because he perked back up, “I’ve got years of pent up bullying frustrations to let loose and tons of ideas from those instances as well.” 

Oh, this was so going to end badly. Ella happily volunteered as she hopped up from her seat, “I want to help Six and Sarah! Girls team!”

“No! I still haven’t forgiven you for the glitter on the girls’ night Sarah dragged me into,” Six scolded, and Sarah looked at me sheepishly. I couldn’t return the look. Dealing with my apartment mates was draining in so many aspects.

Five and Eight leaped off the couch as the girls exited the room, plotting their revenge, and Ella took off somewhere, muttering something that involved the terrifying word of glitter several times. The other two Garde put a comforting arm on Sam’s and Adam’s shoulders, “Come one Sam. We’ll help you strike back on the girls. We won’t allow to endure the unjust punishment the girls plan to inflict without putting up a good fight.”

“You’re the reason we’re even in this mess,” Adam grumbled, but Sam gave him a soft kiss to quite him. Five and Eight lead the couple out, with Sam gently dragging Adam along by their linked hands. I groaned, and sunk somewhere under the countertop to wait the chaos out. I one hundred percent blamed Nine for this fiasco. One hundred percent. Just wait until I had ahold of him.

Hours later… 

The elevator dinged, making me peek out from my hiding place. Out came Marina and Nine with an armful of groceries only to have a bucket full of glitter dumped on them. Nine promptly cursed, “I thought we swore off glitter.”

“I have no idea where she got it,” I offered up, climbing out from underneath the countertop with his hands held up in surrender. Nine surveyed his apartment. Glitter and color pain were splashed everywhere making it look like a confusing piece of modern art that might have been trying to mimic happiness. After a moment of looking around he shook his head and dumped the groceries on the counter top, “Well I guess it shouldn’t go over too badly that we’re forever banned from pretty much all the big stores. How much damage is there?”

I shook my head, really not wanting to answer that, “Oh you only have yourself to blame for all this. You’re the one who rigged a prank trap in the lecture hall.”

Nine grinned, “Yeah? Which one did they trigger? I was so hoping to be here to see it when it happened.”

“You had more than one prank?”

He winked at me, right before another pie or shaving cream plate or whatever they were using was thrown at me face. I’d managed to avoid the vowed vengeance and Ella’s overzealous prank pulling, until Nine had gotten home Why’d I let Nine go shopping again? Babysitting sucked.


End file.
